Ocean Governance Podcast Ocean Governance Podcast

In the sixteenth episode of the Ocean Governance Podcast Aron and David discuss two articles that aim to analyse complexity, either in terms of how law is nested in an affected by social realities and ‘materiality’, or in the form of a multitude of policy instruments and their potential inconsistency.
Complexity seems to be a perpetual challenge in marine management. Ecosystems are in need of delineation and simplification to be manageable, and the same goes for social systems. Both the regulatory structures that have been intentionally designed to pursue various policy objectives and address management challenges, and the multiple way in which laws and other regulatory structures affect and are affected by social structures and processes in the surrounding society are challenging to fully comprehend.

The articles discussed in this episode are:

O’Donnell, T., Coastal Lawscape: A framework for understanding the complexities of climate change adaptation, Marine Policy 129 (2021), 104532, doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104532

Rouillard, J., Lago, M., Abhold, K., Roeschel, L., Kafyeke, T., Klimmek, H., Mattheiß, V., Protecting and Restoring Biodiversity across the Freshwater, Coastal and Marine Realms: Is the existing EU policy framework fit for purpose?, Environmental Policy and Governance 28 (2017), 114-128, doi.org/10.1002/eet.1793

If you want to comment on the content or otherwise communicate with us, please do so by sending an email to: aron.westholm@law.gu.se. We hope that you will enjoy listening!

In this, the fifteenth episode of the Ocean Governance Podcast we discuss two recent articles that engage with seas and oceans as resources. One does so by challenging, at a fundamental level the notion that nature, including species and ecosystems represent potentially useful functions and services, and critically inquiries what such a view does with the way we live with or in nature. It looks at the history of a teleological view of nature, i.e. essentially the idea that every creature has a purpose and a given role to perform in nature. A view that, the article contends, is very much alive today with managers dealing with nature protection. The core message of the article is that humanity was reached a point where we need to choose between living in nature or wholly become the gardeners of a new post-nature, with full responsibility for the structure and function of essentially manmade ecosystems designed to meet our various needs.

The second article in a way embraces the view of the ocean as a resource – though not necessarily a manmade one – and goes on to discuss how it can be managed in a fair and sustainable manner. At centre stage is the phenomenon of ocean grabbing, which can take many different forms, and the potential role of marine spatial planning (MSP) in preventing, or potentially exacerbating this challenge to fair ocean access. The focus is on MSP in the “global south” – an often-neglected perspective – with the aim to help preventing some of the negative consequences that may follow if MSP is implemented without due consideration to local contexts and preconditions. The article is a clear example of the recent turn to more critical approaches in the scholarly discussion on MSP, but without in any way losing sight of the practical requirements and implications of MSP as a practical tool.

Read together, these two articles help us challenge or nuance our thinking about ocean resources and MSP as an instrument for their rational and sustainable use. The utility of that should be beyond doubt in an age where we are increasingly placing ourselves as managers of the very planet on which we live.

The two articles discussed in this episode are:

J. M. Weslawski, Why Does the Seal Exist? Teleology in the Present-Day Human Relation to Animals

B. Queffelecand others, Marine spatial planning and the risk of ocean grabbing in the tropical Atlantic, ICES Journal of Marine Science (2021), fsab006, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsab006

If you want to comment on the content or otherwise communicate with us, please do so by sending an email to: aron.westholm@law.gu.se.
We hope that you will enjoy listening!

The fourteenth episode of the Ocean Governance Podcast is dedicated to governance of the marine Arctic and its resources. To discuss this topic, Aron and David are joined by Gabriela Argüello who as a post doc at the School of Business Economics and Law at Gothenburg university studies Arctic governance from a legal and institutional perspective.

The Arctic is subject to much political as well as scholarly attention and increasing levels of human activities. This applies not least to many marine areas in the Arctic which are becoming increasingly attractive due to climate change and a receding ice cover. This opens for shipping and fishing in areas where such activities have hardly been possible before. Increased access to previously unexploited areas gives rise to many challenges, including how fragile Arctic ecosystems can be protected against pollution and resource depletion. Although much of the marine Arctic falls under the national jurisdiction of the five Arctic coastal states (Canada, Denmark/Greenland, Norway, Russia, and the United States) there are still large areas, including the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO) that count as areas beyond national jurisdiction. In respect to these areas, is it urgent to ensure that new opportunities for resource utilisation do not result in an unregulated race to capture as much as possible of resources of which little is still known. Against this backdrop, the 2018 Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Arctic Fisheries, entered into by the five arctic coastal states and some important non-Arctic states as well as the European Union is a promising sign that states are able to pursue common long-term interests in the Arctic. In no way, however, does it mean that all the legal and political challenges associated with ensuring a sustainable and precautious approach to Arctic resource management have been overcome. The episode discusses two recent articles that look at this situation from slightly different perspectives, providing important pieces of knowledge to understand the increasingly complex jigsaw puzzle of Arctic marine governance.


The articles discussed in this episode are:
Y. Tanaka, Changing Paradigms in the Law of the Sea and the Marine Arctic, 35:3 The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (2020), 439–467, doi.org/10.1163/15718085-BJA10012

A. N. Vylegzhanin, O. R. Young, P. A. Berkman, The Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement as an element in the evolving Arctic Ocean governance complex, 118 Marine Policy (2020),
104001, doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2020.104001.

If you want to comment on the content or otherwise communicate with us, please do so by sending an email to: aron.westholm@law.gu.se.

We hope that you will enjoy listening!